Tuesday, October 21, 2014


News Clips For The Day


CDC releases new Ebola guidelines
CBS/AP October 20, 2014, 8:59 PM

ATLANTA - Health officials released new guidelines Monday for how health workers should gear up to treat Ebola patients.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the long-anticipated updates Monday evening. Health workers have been pushing for new standards since two Dallas hospital nurses were diagnosed with the disease this month after treating an Ebola patient.

The guidelines call for face shields, hoods, boot covers and other garb that leave no part of the body exposed. They also call for a trained monitor to supervise the donning and doffing of protective wear. And they call for repeated training and practice.

The CDC guidance was expected as early as Saturday, but its release has been pushed back while it continues to go through review by experts and government officials.

Experiences by medical staffers caring for Ebola patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center are reflected in the guidelines, the CDC said.

CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook said that the stricter guidelines were determined by those experiences.

"The CDC said, you know something, they didn't seem to work, we're going to make them more strict," said LaPook on CBS This Morning.

Health workers had been pushing for the guidance since the nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas were infected. They had treated an Ebola-infected patient named Thomas Eric Duncan - the first person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S.

Exactly how the two nurses were infected is not clear, said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden during a Monday night teleconference with reporters.

The new guidelines include:

-Use of protective garments, hoods, face shields, double gloves, face masks or respirators and other protective equipment to cover every square inch of a health worker's body.

-A call for health workers who may be involved in an Ebola patient's care to practice repeatedly and demonstrate proficiency in donning and doffing gear before ever being allowed near a patient.

-Placement of a trained hospital employee to supervise all aspects of care in an Ebola patient's room and watch that all health workers put on and take off gear correctly.

Duncan's infection and subsequent death led to the monitoring of about 50 people who came in contact with him before he entered the hospital and dozens of health care workers who cared for him after his admission.

Some good news this week: The 50 in the initial contact group have passed a 21-day observation period and no longer are deemed at risk for coming down with the dreaded disease.

Youngor Jallah spent the past three weeks confined to her small apartment with her children and boyfriend, fearing they had contracted the deadly Ebola virus from her mother's fiance.

But with the household emerging symptom-free from the incubation period, Jallah's family members are now trying to resume their lives - replacing the personal belongings incinerated in a cleanup at her mother's home, and overcoming the stigma of the Ebola scare that has gripped Dallas.

On Monday, Jallah beamed as she sent her children back to school with clearance from the Dallas County health department tucked into their backpacks. Her mother emerged from her own confinement and started looking for a new place to live.

"We were sitting here traumatized," Jallah told The Associated Press on Monday. "We just thank God we never came down with the virus."

Jallah's fiance, Thomas Eric Duncan, was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. He died Oct. 8.

Health officials said Monday about 50 people have passed the incubation period safely. Others who are still being monitored include health care workers who treated Duncan as well as those who cared for two nurses who had treated Duncan and also became infected.

There are now about 120 people in Texas being monitored for symptoms, with their wait period ending Nov. 7, said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. He said the number may fluctuate.

There are also about 140 people being monitored in Ohio because of contact or potential contact with nurse Amber Vinson, Ohio officials said. Vinson, who cared for Duncan in Texas, flew from Dallas to Cleveland on Oct. 10 and flew back Oct. 13.

An Ebola patient who was being treated in Atlanta since early September was released from Emory University Hospital on Sunday after he was determined to be free of the virus and no threat to the public. Hospital and health officials never released his name, in keeping with his family's wish for privacy.

Health officials said they were relieved as the monitoring period ended for many, and after a cruise ship scare ended with the boat returning to port in Texas and a lab worker on board testing negative for the virus.

After Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola, Troh, her 13-year-old son, Duncan's nephew and a family friend were ordered by a Dallas court to stay inside the apartment among Duncan's used linens. Five days later they were evacuated to a four-bedroom home in an isolated corner of a 13-acre gated property owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas, southwest of downtown.

Except for a few plastic bins filled with personal documents, photographs, trophies and a Bible, the apartment was stripped down to the carpeting and the contents were incinerated.

The city of Dallas announced Monday it is coordinating with a local church and donors to provide Jallah's mother, Louise Troh, with funds to pay for six months of housing. Once she chooses a location, nonprofits will assist the family with furniture, linens and other household items, the city said.

"We want to restore what's lost but more than that, we want to give her a running start on her new life," said Troh's pastor, George Mason of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

While health workers cleared Jallah of having Ebola, the disease's stigma lingers - including among fellow Liberians, she said.

"If they see me at the store, they run away," she said.




“Except for a few plastic bins filled with personal documents, photographs, trophies and a Bible, the apartment was stripped down to the carpeting and the contents were incinerated. The city of Dallas announced Monday it is coordinating with a local church and donors to provide Jallah's mother, Louise Troh, with funds to pay for six months of housing. Once she chooses a location, nonprofits will assist the family with furniture, linens and other household items, the city said.”

The authorities have done such a thorough job of removing and incinerating physical objects that may have been contaminated by Duncan's bodily fluids that I am, again, unconvinced that it can be spread only “by close personal contact”. A news report about a month ago said that the virus can live on inanimate surfaces for a period of time and be transmitted by contact with such things as doorknobs, furniture, etc. like the flu. The authorities have also admitted that tiny droplets as are ejected in a sneeze can be a source of infection. That is not the same thing as being “spread through the air,” but it is very close. A car in which an Ebola patient died was thoroughly cleaned in Africa by a man who later came down with the disease. It becomes difficult to clean an environment well enough to prevent contact with the virus, and likewise to be certain exactly when and how a patient became infected. I do hope no more cases pop up here among those who are still under observation, and that no more infected people fly out of Africa to another area. Some 120 people in Ohio and 140 in Texas are still being monitored for symptoms. After that our Ebola scare will be over for this time.





Almost waterless washing could come to American homes
By ALPHONSO VAN MARSH CBS NEWS
October 20, 2014, 9:30 PM

Ejaz Osmani's family-run laundry service in London has been using soap and water to clean shirts for more than 40 years. But in 2014, Osmani tried using less water, and added nylon beads to the mix..

"I'm always looking to upgrade my service to deliver the best," Osmani says over the sounds of spinning washing machine tubs, commercial-sized irons steaming and whirring electrical clothing racks snaking through his White Rose Laundries main production house.

The upgrade came in the form of about 1.5 million small, white nylon beads churning in each of two specially-made commercial washers at White Rose. Xeros Ltd, manufacturers of the machines, says the beads gently rub against the clothes in up to 70% less water - just enough moisture for the water to dissolve the stains on clothing and temporarily alter the molecular structure of the polymer beads.

"The stains are just charged molecules that you want to get rid of, and this polymer [bead] has the ability to attract stains, then absorb them and lock them away," says Dr. Steve Jenkins, Xeros' Chief Technology Officer.

Jenkins says you can't see the absorption take place with the naked eye - and that the spheres don't swell up like a sponge. The polymer physicist say the bead technology needs about half the amount of detergent to work - and uses up to 50% less energy - than a conventional commercial washing machine.

"We can clean as effectively as a hot cycle, in cold," Jenkins says.

White Rose Laundries isn't the only business adopting the technology. In the United States, laundromats, athletic clubs and some properties of hotel chains Hyatt and Choice say they've given the beads a spin, and like the results. "Xeros machines are providing us with a wash quality that is unparalleled. The linens that we have are fresher, they smell better, they are cleaner, they're softer," said Comfort Inn North Shore, Massachusetts regional vice president Chad Hanson, in Xeros promotional materials.

The commercial cleaning company says typical use of their machines saves about 350,807 gallons of water per year, compared to regular washing machines - not just saving money, but also giving businesses "green creditability."

"It is really important to them to differentiate their businesses by telling their customers or their hotel guests about the environmentally-friendly process they are using in their laundry," says Xeros CEO Bill Westwater.

Now Xeros researchers out of Sheffield, England are working on a home version of the machine, targeted to American preferences for side-by-side washer/dryer combos. Pending additional investment, Xeros says by the time it hopes to market a domestic washer-dryer by 2016, the beads will be able to handle dark colors and whites in the same load.

Xeros says concerns about the beads finding their way out of the machines and potentially doing harm to the environment are unfounded. Chief Technology Officer Jenkins says after the beads tumble through the wash load, they are rinsed through drain holes into a container at the bottom of the washer, then pumped back into the drum during the next wash.

"It is a sealed system," Jenkins says. "The filtration system is well constructed...beads don't get out."

Researchers say the beads can absorb dirt and orders [sic] for at least 500 washes, before they must be replaced. Xeros says it sells used beads to a third party company to be recycled into plastic automobile dashboards.

At White Rose Laundries, a company that on an average day processes at least 1,500 shirts, a few of the tiny spheres were trapped shirt pockets and creases. Not a big deal, says Ejaz Osmani who handles laundry contracts for large-scale uniformed and linen services, like hotels and restaurants. Xeros says they are refining the process. "You've got to get the beads to interact with the clothes to wash, but at the end of the process, you've got to get them to leave. It is a tricky balance to achieve, but we're doing it well," Jenkins says.




“The upgrade came in the form of about 1.5 million small, white nylon beads churning in each of two specially-made commercial washers at White Rose. Xeros Ltd, manufacturers of the machines, says the beads gently rub against the clothes in up to 70% less water - just enough moisture for the water to dissolve the stains on clothing and temporarily alter the molecular structure of the polymer beads. 'The stains are just charged molecules that you want to get rid of, and this polymer [bead] has the ability to attract stains, then absorb them and lock them away,' says Dr. Steve Jenkins, Xeros' Chief Technology Officer. Jenkins says you can't see the absorption take place with the naked eye - and that the spheres don't swell up like a sponge. The polymer physicist say the bead technology needs about half the amount of detergent to work - and uses up to 50% less energy - than a conventional commercial washing machine. ... The commercial cleaning company says typical use of their machines saves about 350,807 gallons of water per year, compared to regular washing machines - not just saving money, but also giving businesses 'green creditability.'... Now Xeros researchers out of Sheffield, England are working on a home version of the machine, targeted to American preferences for side-by-side washer/dryer combos. Pending additional investment, Xeros says by the time it hopes to market a domestic washer-dryer by 2016, the beads will be able to handle dark colors and whites in the same load.... Researchers say the beads can absorb dirt and orders [sic] for at least 500 washes, before they must be replaced. Xeros says it sells used beads to a third party company to be recycled into plastic automobile dashboards.”

“At White Rose Laundries, a company that on an average day processes at least 1,500 shirts, a few of the tiny spheres were trapped shirt pockets and creases. Not a big deal, says Ejaz Osmani ... 'You've got to get the beads to interact with the clothes to wash, but at the end of the process, you've got to get them to leave. It is a tricky balance to achieve, but we're doing it well,' Jenkins says.” So Jenkins doesn't say how they get all the little beads off the finished laundry, but that it is being effectively done. I hope home washing machines will do as good a job of removing the beads, because if little beads got inside our bodies by ingestion, could they cause some kind of damage by absorbing some of our necessary bodily chemicals? Whenever some new scientific discovery happens, there can be “unintended consequences,” such as illness. Other than that, this is a great new discovery. Lack of water is one of the things that we will be experiencing when global warming becomes worse. The drought in California now is almost certainly due to global warming.





2014 could become the hottest year on record – CBS
AP  October 20, 2014, 5:06 PM

Earth is on pace to tie or even break the mark for the hottest year on record, federal meteorologists say.

That's because global heat records have kept falling in 2014, with September the latest example.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that last month the globe averaged 60.3 degrees Fahrenheit (15.72 degrees Celsius). That was the hottest September in 135 years of record keeping.

It was the fourth monthly record set this year, along with May, June and August.

NASA, which measures temperatures slightly differently, had already determined that September was record-warm.

The first nine months of 2014 have a global average temperature of 58.72 degrees (14.78 degrees Celsius), tying with 1998 for the warmest first nine months on record, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

"It's pretty likely" that 2014 will break the record for hottest year, said NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden.

The reason involves El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that affects weather worldwide. In 1998, the year started off super-hot because of an El Nino. But then that El Nino disappeared and temperatures moderated slightly toward the end of the year.

This year has no El Nino yet, but forecasts for the rest of the year show a strong chance that one will show up, and that weather will be warmer than normal, Blunden said.

If 2014 breaks the record for hottest year, that also should sound familiar: 1995, 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2010 all broke NOAA records for the hottest years since records started being kept in 1880.

"This is one of many indicators that climate change has not stopped and that it continues to be one of the most important issues facing humanity," said University of Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles.

Some people, mostly non-scientists, have been claiming that the world has not warmed in 18 years, but "no one's told the globe that," Blunden said. She said NOAA records show no pause in warming.

The record-breaking heat goes back to the end of last year - November 2013 broke a record. So the 12 months from October 2013 to September 2014 are the hottest 12-month period on record, Blunden said. Earth hasn't set a monthly record for cold since December 1916, but all monthly heat records have been set after 1997.

September also marks the fifth month in a row that Earth's oceans broke monthly heat records, Blunden said.

The U.S. as a whole was warmer than normal for September, but the month was only the 25th warmest on record.

While parts of the U.S. Midwest, Russia and central Africa were slightly cool in September, it was especially hotter than normal in the U.S. West, Australia, Europe, northwestern Africa, central South America and parts of Asia. California and Nevada set records for the hottest September.

If Earth sets a record for heat in 2014 it probably won't last, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director for the private firm Weather Underground. If there is an El Nino, Masters said, "next year could well bring Earth's hottest year on record, accompanied by unprecedented regional heat waves and droughts."




“That's because global heat records have kept falling in 2014, with September the latest example. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that last month the globe averaged 60.3 degrees Fahrenheit (15.72 degrees Celsius). That was the hottest September in 135 years of record keeping.... This year has no El Nino yet, but forecasts for the rest of the year show a strong chance that one will show up, and that weather will be warmer than normal, Blunden said. If 2014 breaks the record for hottest year, that also should sound familiar: 1995, 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2010 all broke NOAA records for the hottest years since records started being kept in 1880.... Some people, mostly non-scientists, have been claiming that the world has not warmed in 18 years, but 'no one's told the globe that,' Blunden said. She said NOAA records show no pause in warming.... Earth hasn't set a monthly record for cold since December 1916, but all monthly heat record have been set after 1997.”

While there is no need to panic today – all the polar ice won't disappear this year and the rise in sea level will be a matter of inches per decade most likely – this time period in which global heat has broken records a number of times during the years from 1995 to 2014, there is cause to worry about the trend we have been on since 1916, and really, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It's one more sign that we need to stop using coal, drive our cars less, and make other environmentally friendly changes. We should follow up on the progress made in solar and wind energy, and eat less meat. All thesethings require changes in deeply set habits of living and won't happen easily, even without the Koch brothers and the Republican party's input. For a long report on the history of man's habits and influence on the environment, showing how we got to our present predicament, see my other blog under “manessmorrison2.blogspot.com” for today's entry called “A Brief History Of Industry And The Environment.” 





Kurds Leave Life In Europe To Fight ISIS In Their Iraqi Homeland – NPR
by ALICE FORDHAM
October 21, 2014

The men of the Betwata tribe gather to drink tea every morning in Irbil, Iraq, in an outdoor courtyard with curving pillars and climbing plants.

In northern Iraq, almost everyone is ethnically Kurdish, and most of them wear a traditional Kurdish baggy blue suit, with a colored sash, and black and white headdress. And they all talk about the war.

One of the men — Sarhad Betwata — is a general. The grizzled officer says he commands about 1,000 men and later this morning will head off from Irbil to the front lines with the Islamic State, close to the Syrian border.

Sitting respectfully in a corner is his nephew Aza, tall and handsome, in uniform and holding a sniper rifle almost as big as he is. He is the picture of a peshmerga fighter, the soldiers Iraq's Kurds are so proud of. But until a couple months ago, Aza, 24, led a very different life.

"I was a student — social work," he says. He was studying in Holland, and wanted to help young people on the streets there find a better path.

Aza's family moved to the Netherlands when he was a child. He grew up speaking Dutch, and loves traditional Dutch food like beef with red cabbage.

But when he and his brothers realized the so-called Islamic State was attacking their homeland, they decided to come back. Aza's student friends couldn't believe it.

"Everyone was surprised, they didn't believe it until I take the plane and came back, until the day, they didn't believe it," he says. "They never had seen something like that."

It was also difficult for him to leave everything — school, friends, family — to came back and fight.

"You don't know if you'll survive or not," he says. "But it's a duty. You have to do it."

He joined his uncle's battalion and very soon found himself on the front line.

"I was proud. Felt good. Felt like I was home," he says.

Aza had just two days' training. He reckons he'd had plenty of practice shooting guns with his Kurdish cousins on summer vacations back in Iraq. But when I ask him about the rifle he's holding, it turns out it's the first time he's handled it.

He hasn't even learned to strip and clean it yet. His younger brother Mirwan takes the opportunity to show him.

Their uncle, the general, says they don't bother with lots of training. The boys' fathers and grandfathers were peshmerga fighting in wars decades ago. They grew up looking at their photographs, hearing their stories.

"I will give you just a small example," he says, leaning in and twinkling. "You know ducks when they come out of the egg, they just go into the water and learn how to swim? It's inherited in our family also."

He reckons he has about 30 European returnees like his nephews under his command.

Mirwan finishes breaking the gun up and putting it back together.

"Yes," he chuckles. "It is normal, it is simple, it is not so difficult." He laughs. "Just like the ducks, little ducks."

Peshmerga officials welcome them. I meet Maj. Gen. Hazhar Ismail, who's in charge of international relations. He says 100, maybe 200 Kurds in exile have come back to fight, "with their brothers ... to protect their families, their relatives and to protect Kurdistan," which he concedes is nothing compared with the thousands of Europeans who are fighting with the Islamic State.

And honestly, although they're good for morale, he says a lot of these European Kurds aren't quite ready to fight.

Some fear that even the regular peshmerga are not battle-ready. Many of their commanders have asked Western countries for heavy weapons to fight back against the well-equipped Islamic State. But some foreign military officials now in Irbil privately point out that the peshmerga don't know how to use them.

In a recent interview, one commander, Brig. Gen. Zana Abdulrahman, says there's no selection process for peshmerga, they just have to be over 18. If they're unfit, they're sent to a 45-day training camp, he adds.

The officer says that his soldiers trained in their native, mountainous region.

"Our training was basic military training using the light weapons, Kalashnikovs, mortars and machine guns," he says. But now, they're facing the Islamic State in open terrain, and they stage ambushes, build bombs, conduct suicide attacks in armored Humvees.

Back at the Betwata family home, the uncle — the commander — has changed into his uniform and is busily loading up two four-wheel drive vehicles. Suddenly car doors slam, the soldiers gone and it seems awfully quiet. Only the old men and the children are left.
"They're going to the Mosul dam," their father says, an area where the Islamic State was in control until recently. He turns back to the house. "Hopefully they'll come back safe," he says.





“In northern Iraq, almost everyone is ethnically Kurdish, and most of them wear a traditional Kurdish baggy blue suit, with a colored sash, and black and white headdress. And they all talk about the war.... Sitting respectfully in a corner is his nephew Aza, tall and handsome, in uniform and holding a sniper rifle almost as big as he is. He is the picture of a peshmerga fighter, the soldiers Iraq's Kurds are so proud of. But until a couple months ago, Aza, 24, led a very different life. 'I was a student — social work,' he says. He was studying in Holland, and wanted to help young people on the streets there find a better path.... It was also difficult for him to leave everything — school, friends, family — to came back and fight. 'You don't know if you'll survive or not,' he says. 'But it's a duty. You have to do it.' He joined his uncle's battalion and very soon found himself on the front line. 'I was proud. Felt good. Felt like I was home,' he says.... Their uncle, the general, says they don't bother with lots of training. The boys' fathers and grandfathers were peshmerga fighting in wars decades ago. They grew up looking at their photographs, hearing their stories. 'I will give you just a small example,' he says, leaning in and twinkling. 'You know ducks when they come out of the egg, they just go into the water and learn how to swim? It's inherited in our family also.'... Peshmerga officials welcome them. I meet Maj. Gen. Hazhar Ismail, who's in charge of international relations. He says 100, maybe 200 Kurds in exile have come back to fight, 'with their brothers ... to protect their families, their relatives and to protect Kurdistan...'... Many of their commanders have asked Western countries for heavy weapons to fight back against the well-equipped Islamic State. But some foreign military officials now in Irbil privately point out that the peshmerga don't know how to use them.... The officer says that his soldiers trained in their native, mountainous region. 'Our training was basic military training using the light weapons, Kalashnikovs, mortars and machine guns,' he says. But now, they're facing the Islamic State in open terrain, and they stage ambushes, build bombs, conduct suicide attacks in armored Humvees.”

This is the first close description of the famous Peshmerga fighters that I have read. I've seen the baggy trousers and belt sash in old books about the Middle East, but I didn't know they were Kurdish garb. Aza's uncle characterizes the European Kurd's fighting abilities in the Peshmerga as being like baby ducklings taking to the water. Fighting for their society is an inherited characteristic. His uncle says there are between one and two hundred Europeans under his command now in his command of 1000 men. The exploits of the Peshmerga would make a good dramatic action movie, I think. Maybe someone in Hollywood will make one.





Some Millennials — And Their Parents — Are Slow To Cut The Cord – NPR
by SAMANTHA RAPHELSON
October 21, 2014

This story is part of the New Boom series on millennials in America.

So your child moved back in with you after graduation, and it seems like she will never leave. Or worse, you're sending rent checks each month while she searches for jobs in the big city.

You often find yourself wondering if she will ever grow up. You're concerned that your child is suffering from delayed adolescence.

But research suggests there's no need to panic. Parental support during emerging adulthood does not necessarily inhibit young adults from becoming independent, experts say. This close relationship is actually beneficial to both kids and parents.

"I think it's a great thing overall that there's this wonderful closeness between parents and emerging adults today, and I really think it's unprecedented in human history," says Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a research professor at Clark University in Massachusetts and director of the Clark Poll of Emerging Adults.

Arnett coined the term "emerging adulthood" — the life stage where young adults take time to find themselves in their 20s. He says this stage has brought a new closeness to the parent-child relationship.

The idea of the big American family doesn't exist so much anymore. Rather than having to divide time between multiple kids, parents today can plan their families more and focus on each kid, Arnett says.

"We've had this big change in our beliefs as a society about what's appropriate between parents and children," he says. "Parents no longer feel like they should be some stern authority figure."

Post-Grads Aren't Just Heading Home For Mom's Cooking

Parental support ranges from having the child living at home to paying for living expenses to just talking to the child daily.

Experts say pursuing more education, delaying marriage and the sluggish economy are the main reasons why millennials live with their parents. As more young adults stay single longer — some 25 percent of them will never marry — a bond with a parent can become the most important relationship in their lives, says Karen Fingerman, a research professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

A recent Gallup poll found that only 14 percent of 24- to 34-year-olds are living at home, whereas about half of 18- to 23-year-olds — the majority of which are still in college — live with their parents.

While 14 percent seems like a small number, the number of young adults living at home post-graduation is on the rise. In 1968, only 10 percent of college graduates ages 25 to 34 were living at home, according to a Pew Research Center report.

About 61 percent of parents with grown kids at home find this experience mostly positive, according to the 2013 Clark University Poll of Parents of Emerging Adults. A 2008 study also found that parents showed fewer depressive symptoms when they felt involved in their grown children's lives.

After graduating from Syracuse University this past May, Maddy Berner moved back home to Arlington, Va., while interning and working a part-time job. She says her life at home is very positive so far.

"I knew from the beginning that I wasn't gonna be that child that just turned back into that 16-year-old that made my parents do everything," she says. "I told my parents I would pay for events out with my friends, I would try to make dinner, and I wanted to make clear that I was a 22-year-old and I had responsibilities."

"When it comes to being a millennial and living with your parents, I think it's all about being open with them," Berner adds.

Keep The Rent Checks Coming, Mom and Dad 

Even if they don't live at home, a majority of today's emerging adults — about 74 percent — receive financial support from their parents, according to the 2013 Clark Poll.

"Virtually all 25-year-olds could support themselves if they really had to, but then they wouldn't be able to live a very nice life in their 20s," Clark University's Arnett says. "They could live on it, but they don't really want to, and when it comes right down to it, their parents don't want them to have to either."

Berner says her parents understand the tough job market she and many of her peers are entering.

"They're accepting of that, so they're all for me trying to save money so when I become independent, I become self-sufficient and ready to go," she says. "I'm not drowning in debt, depression and need more money."

But Arnett says young millennials are less likely to feel adult if they are still financially dependent on their parents.

"I graduated college, so I should now be self-sufficient," says Lauren Ruvo, a Harvard University graduate student. "I feel self-sufficient, I make daily decisions for myself, but yet the financial piece I still don't have."

Studies show that young adults who had more parental support did not score worse on indicators of independence, says Fingerman of the University of Texas. While there's a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that helicopter parents persist after college, she says those instances are few.

The majority of today's parents are so willing to support their grown kids because they invented the idea of striving for a career you really want, Arnett says.

"I think a lot of parents that can afford it will say, 'Well, I would really rather have this money for our own fun, but he needs it and they're trying hard, so we'll write the check,' " he says.

It's Not Just About The Money 

Millennials who are financially independent still rely on their parents for emotional support.

Kim Parker, a researcher at Pew, says more young people look to their parents for advice because the generation gap is closing. In the 1960s, the young and the old were often at odds, she says.

In 1986, about half of parents reported that they spoke to their grown children once a week. Today, 67 percent of mothers and 51 percent of fathers say they have contact with their young adult child almost every day, according to the 2013 Clark Poll.

"Typically we talk every day, and we just talk about whatever's going on," Ruvo says. "I would value my parents' opinions more than probably the average 22-year-old, so when there are things that are going on, I call them for emotional support because I know that they won't sugarcoat anything."

Fingerman says the idea of young adults turning to their parents for advice wasn't always so common.

When I was young, "we were turning to other 19-year-olds and asking their advice, and now they're asking a 40-year-old with life experience," she says. "It's a smart thing to do."

But not all young adults have this kind of relationship with their parents. Leo Caldwell, 32, hasn't had a close relationship with his parents since he came out as a lesbian in college. He now identifies as transgender.

"To me, millennials are so invested in what their parents want and how their parents feel about their life," Caldwell says. "I've experienced people feeling very shocked about me not telling my parents things.

"It's interesting to me to see that dynamic," he says, "to see their parents so involved, because I don't think Generation X feels that way or baby boomers feel that way."

The stigma around helicopter parenting leads both parents and young adult children to feel like this level of support is too much. According to the 2013 Clark Parents Poll, 61 percent of parents said their parents gave them little or no support when they were in their 20s. Only 26 percent of today's young adult children say that is true for them.

When Erica Deshpande, 22, was choosing which graduate school to attend, her parents told her they would pay and that money was no object. Columbia University gave her more money, but she chose Harvard because she went to Boston College for undergrad and liked the city.

"There was a lot of guilt associated with having my parents pay for me to just like my school better," she says. "My dad especially is the one who sat down with me and really tried to make me feel that what they want is for me to be where I'm happy. But to be honest, the nicer they are about it, the more guilty I feel sometimes."

Parents and kids feel uncomfortable because cultural norms haven't caught up yet, Arnett says.

"Even though we have this new norm, we don't feel entirely comfortable because we still have this old value that they should kind of be doing this themselves," he says.
While both parents and their grown children agree this type of support is positive now, it's hard to tell if it will prevent them from becoming sufficiently independent in the long run.

As emerging adults grow older, they are less likely to receive financial support from their parents because they want to make their own financial decisions, Arnett says. The 2012 Clark Poll of Emerging Adults reported that only 6 percent of 26- to 29-year-olds said they received regular financial support.

"It's really underestimated in all these negative stereotypes about them how much they want to move ahead with their lives," Arnett says, "and how much they prefer to be financially independent."




“But research suggests there's no need to panic. Parental support during emerging adulthood does not necessarily inhibit young adults from becoming independent, experts say. This close relationship is actually beneficial to both kids and parents.... Arnett says. 'We've had this big change in our beliefs as a society about what's appropriate between parents and children,' he says. 'Parents no longer feel like they should be some stern authority figure.'... As more young adults stay single longer — some 25 percent of them will never marry — a bond with a parent can become the most important relationship in their lives, says Karen Fingerman, a research professor at the University of Texas, Austin.... About 61 percent of parents with grown kids at home find this experience mostly positive, according to the 2013 Clark University Poll of Parents of Emerging Adults. A 2008 study also found that parents showed fewer depressive symptoms when they felt involved in their grown children's lives.... Berner says her parents understand the tough job market she and many of her peers are entering. 'They're accepting of that, so they're all for me trying to save money so when I become independent, I become self-sufficient and ready to go,' she says. 'I'm not drowning in debt, depression and need more money.'... Kim Parker, a researcher at Pew, says more young people look to their parents for advice because the generation gap is closing. In the 1960s, the young and the old were often at odds, she says.... Parents and kids feel uncomfortable because cultural norms haven't caught up yet, Arnett says. 'Even though we have this new norm, we don't feel entirely comfortable because we still have this old value that they should kind of be doing this themselves,' he says.”

The writer of this article said that this pattern of young adult children staying at home with their parents is a new thing, but it's not. It's just new for this last seventy five years or so. In the 1800's and early 1900's many young people stayed home, had jobs, or if their parents were wealthy they didn't work. Young women weren't even respected if they lived alone unmarried as an adult in the 1800's. It is true that most of them, both men and women, did marry by around 20 or so and if they had enough money they set up a separate home, but it was not uncommon for a large family home to contain more than one generation on a permanent basis. The elderly, likewise, were not packed off to an “old folks home,” but were cared for by their children until they died. Elderly people contributed to the family home by helping in the kitchen or on the farm and by taking care of the children part of the time. They were considered sources of wisdom for young and old alike. It seems to me that it is the alienation between parent and child, which has become too common from the 1960's to this time, that is new, and not a good thing either for the health of the human psyche. Of course teenagers in those homes in previous years were expected to help run the household and farm rather than lying on the couch playing video games. They were also expected to behave according to societal norms, not bring home their men friends for the night. It's all a balance.





In Tight Races, Both Parties Bank On Early Votes – NPR
by TAMARA KEITH
October 21, 2014

On the first day for in-person early voting in Illinois, President Obama went to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center to cast his ballot.

"I'm so glad I can early vote here," he told the elections worker checking him in.

Early voting is something Democrats have used to their advantage in recent elections. And it's likely not a coincidence Obama chose to vote in person, with cameras rolling and clicking, rather than quietly dropping an absentee ballot in the mail.

And Obama isn't the only one who voted Monday. Republican Rep. Tom Cotton tweeted a snapshot of his "Grandma Bryant" standing at an electronic voting machine. Cotton is running for Senate in Arkansas.

Election Day is two weeks away, and already more than 2 million people have voted, either by mail or at in-person early voting locations. With control of the U.S. Senate resting on a handful of incredibly close races, locking in these votes early has become a key election strategy for both parties.

If you had to name a state where the battle for early votes was most intense, it would be Iowa.

In a video posted by the Iowa Democratic Party, retiring Sen. Tom Harkin casts his vote on a mail-in ballot for Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley. Braley is in a tight race against Republican Joni Ernst, who mentions early voting at nearly every campaign stop.

"Vote early, don't vote often," Ernst joked at a GOP event on the first day of early voting in the state. "But vote early. Every voice counts."

She told reporters at an event Monday that Democrats have always been good at turning out their voters. But this year, she said, Iowa Republicans are close to matching them — a major shift from past elections.

"Once they've voted, we don't have to call them anymore, we don't have to knock on their doors," Ernst said of people who vote early. "And so it does save our time and energy to really focus on those voters that maybe don't get out in these midterms."

Voters who don't usually get out in midterms is what the push for early voting is all about, for both parties. They are trying to grow the electorate and reach people who would traditionally stay home in nonpresidential election years.

"We've targeted those voters and tried to drive those voters to participate during the early vote period," says Matt Canter, deputy executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Canter argues that Democrats are capturing new votes, while Republicans are cannibalizing votes that would have come in on Election Day anyway.

"The critical number is how many people that did not vote in 2010 and might not have voted anyway are now participating because we've connected with these people," says Canter.

Nationwide, the parties, candidates and their allies are spending tens of millions of dollars to get their voters to cast ballots early. Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski says they're even trying a little peer pressure with a Facebook-based Pledge to Vote Challenge.

"We've had a lot of success in that social pressure," says Kukowski. "You don't want to be the only one to not vote is what we're going for and people really respond well to it."

She couldn't say how many people had signed up for the challenge so far.

University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald tracks early voting obsessively. He says from the publicly available numbers of ballots returned, it is clear more people are voting early. But it's hard to tell just who those people are, and whether they really are previously untapped votes.

"We're seeing changing strategies for the parties and that's part of what makes it very difficult to determine which party really is winning when we look at the early vote," explains McDonald.

All he can say for sure is that the key Senate races are close.



COMMENTS:

AustinWeirdo • 2 hours ago
Why do Republican-governed states want to limit early voting?

Geraldine Merola  AustinWeirdo • 2 hours ago
because the people that need flexibility are either the elderly or the young working class/college students and they usually vote Democratic. They know what they're doing, nothing Republicans do is an accident!

freedumb car  AustinWeirdo • 2 hours ago
think its because they fear migrant mexican laborers will do what they do
vote early
vote often
vote in every state they have property or visit

Big Al Picante • 2 hours ago
The more people that vote in this country the stronger our democracy will be.

freedumb car  Big Al Picante • 2 hours ago
not sure if that is true because without economic power, democracy is just a platitude
the fact that our candidates for leadership are picked by money or come from money is a strong indicator that voting is often a token act, to provide affirmation that we are willing to surrender to be governed by entrenched interests

D Scully • 2 hours ago
With all of the fake ballots circulating from the Koch Brothers, it's probably dangerous for people to vote in any other way besides in person anyway.
Also, poor and working class people will need to consider losing a day of pay to vote, as a sacrifice/civic duty.
Making it difficult to vote and providing fraudulent ballots are just the way it's going to be in America, until the entire apparatus for democracy is completely dismantled.

Matthew  D Scully • 37 minutes ago
I haven't heard of any fake ballots. I know they have sent incorrect information about how to request absentee ballots and early voting in several states though.

Berin Greenbear • an hour ago
Wouldn't it be interesting to see what would happen if voting in the US was compulsory? Say... Either you register to vote and show up, or you're fined $20. Not a huge sum, but enough to make most people say, "Yeah... I'll show up at the polls."
It's a law that might pass a legislature, but I doubt it'd survive a court challenge. Still... What if? I'd be interested in seeing the outcome.




“Early voting is something Democrats have used to their advantage in recent elections. And it's likely not a coincidence Obama chose to vote in person, with cameras rolling and clicking, rather than quietly dropping an absentee ballot in the mail.... Election Day is two weeks away, and already more than 2 million people have voted, either by mail or at in-person early voting locations. With control of the U.S. Senate resting on a handful of incredibly close races, locking in these votes early has become a key election strategy for both parties.... She told reporters at an event Monday that Democrats have always been good at turning out their voters. But this year, she said, Iowa Republicans are close to matching them — a major shift from past elections.... Voters who don't usually get out in midterms is what the push for early voting is all about, for both parties. They are trying to grow the electorate and reach people who would traditionally stay home in nonpresidential election years.... University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald tracks early voting obsessively. He says from the publicly available numbers of ballots returned, it is clear more people are voting early. But it's hard to tell just who those people are, and whether they really are previously untapped votes. 'We're seeing changing strategies for the parties and that's part of what makes it very difficult to determine which party really is winning when we look at the early vote,' explains McDonald.”

This article is my reminder to get in my car and go down to the polling place and vote. The Democrats have been very actively emailing me to pledge my vote, etc., for this year's Senatorial campaign is crucial to the party's wellbeing; and the battle against the ultraconservative Tea Partiers is ongoing and hard fought. I can only give so many of my precious dollars to the campaigns, but I can see to it that my vote is cast. I'll definitely do that one day this week.





Six Words: 'Must We Forget Our Confederate Ancestors?' – NPR
by NPR STAFF
October 21, 2014

NPR continues a series of conversations from The Race Card Project, where thousands of people have submitted their thoughts on race and cultural identity in six words.

Jesse Dukes does not have Confederate ancestors. But in the time he has spent writing about Civil War re-enactors, he has met many who say they do.

Their perspectives on the Confederate flag and the legacy of their ancestors prompted Dukes, a writer and radio reporter, to share his own six words with the Race Card Project: "Must We Forget Our Confederate Ancestors?"

Dukes, a Southerner himself, embedded last year with a group of Civil War re-enactors at the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and wrote about it in a piece for the Virginia Quarterly Review.

"I just wanted to see the spectacle of the thing," he tells NPR Special Correspondent Michele Norris. The event, a re-enactment of one of the Civil War's most famous battles, "was going to be like the Woodstock of re-enacting, is what everyone told me. ... I wanted to sort of understand what they got out of it."

Part of his motivation, Dukes says, was to connect with re-enactors "in an environment where I thought people would be comfortable talking about things like the legacy of slavery, and the legacy of Jim Crow and the legacy of racism."

As it turned out, the people he met weren't particularly comfortable talking about those themes, Dukes says. But they did talk when prompted, and "everybody was kind and everybody was very welcoming," he notes.

Many Confederate re-enactors understand, Dukes says, that the Confederate flag is associated with segregation, the KKK and lynchings. "And invariably people would say, you know, racism was so terrible. It was an abomination. ... But that's not what I'm here to connect with,' " Dukes says.

'A History, Not A Hate, Issue'

Instead, the re-enactors were there to connect with their ancestors, he says. "Maybe not run up that exact same hill, but a simulacrum of that hill with the same sounds and the same shouts and the same visual stimulus — minus the blood and dying. And it still seemed to define their identity."

"I think people tried to distance their ancestors from the guilt associated with slavery, and I also think they tried to implicate everybody else," Dukes says. "So, pointing out, very accurately, that slavery — the economic system — relied on the markets and the textile factories and places like that in the North."

While reporting, Dukes met Sara Smith, a Confederate re-enactor from Dayton, Va. Her great-great-grandfather, Harry N. Smith, fought for the Confederacy at Gettysburg and was wounded in battle.

Sara Smith has Confederate flag stickers on the back of her truck — and says those who see it as a symbol glorifying racism or segregation don't understand the meaning the flag holds for her.

"I think people need to realize ... it's a history, not a hate, issue," Smith told Dukes. "I think too many people get caught up in the symbol. You know, for us, it doesn't mean the same thing it means to other people. The flag that they get so upset over, was actually not a flag. It was a battle flag. It was what you formed off of to know you were on the right side" in battle.

Smith doesn't think her great-great-grandfather was fighting to preserve slavery. To her, it's "the flag her great-great-grandfather carried up that hill in a desperate attempt to maintain his state's freedom from government interference," Dukes says.

And "if her great-great-grandfather was a good, noble, brave person who was wounded and then came home, and still lived to be something like 80, and showed so much bravery on the field, and he could carry that flag, why would it be wrong for her to put it on her vehicle?"

'Willful Innocence'

Dukes describes that perspective as "willful innocence." It's a logic "that says, 'OK, I have the right to love my great-great-grandfather and to admire those things in his life that are admirable, like bravery, like loyalty, like accomplishments, like survival. And because he must have been a good person, then the cause he fought for and the flag that he held must not have been a bad cause.' "

Dukes says that perspective led some of the re-enactors to make the following assertion: "People who are offended by [the flag] just don't understand what the Confederate flag really means."

The Confederate flag holds different significance for other Americans, as well, Dukes says. While some Southerners are well aware that the flag is often perceived as racist — and display it anyway — others display it to demonstrate their mistrust in federal government and as a symbol of resistance to federal regulation.

And for others, Dukes says, the Confederate flag signifies an awareness that rural white Southerners, and rural Americans more generally, are often stereotyped as backward.

"I think the flag has transcended Southern identity to become [linked to] a kind of rural impoverished identity, too," says Dukes, who says he has even seen people display the Confederate flag in rural Maine.

"I think there are poor people in the rural South and North and all over the country who do feel like they're stereotyped and they don't have everything ... including respect ... that's due to them.

"I'm not sure that waving a Confederate flag is a great way to get that respect back — and often it is enacting the stereotype that they're trying to escape — but I do think it's a legitimate complaint nevertheless."

Dukes says he enjoyed meeting re-enactors like Smith, and doesn't "begrudge them their weekends clad in gray, remembering their ancestors, hoisting libations and waving the battle flag," he writes in Virginia Quarterly Review.

But, Dukes writes, "better to roll the flag up at the end of the weekend and leave it in the trunk until the next re-enactment. This is the 21st century, and the Confederate flag has no place in our time."




“Jesse Dukes does not have Confederate ancestors. But in the time he has spent writing about Civil War re-enactors, he has met many who say they do. Their perspectives on the Confederate flag and the legacy of their ancestors prompted Dukes, a writer and radio reporter, to share his own six words with the Race Card Project: 'Must We Forget Our Confederate Ancestors?'... 'I just wanted to see the spectacle of the thing,' he tells NPR Special Correspondent Michele Norris. The event, a re-enactment of one of the Civil War's most famous battles, 'was going to be like the Woodstock of re-enacting, is what everyone told me. ... I wanted to sort of understand what they got out of it.' Part of his motivation, Dukes says, was to connect with re-enactors 'in an environment where I thought people would be comfortable talking about things like the legacy of slavery, and the legacy of Jim Crow and the legacy of racism.'... Many Confederate re-enactors understand, Dukes says, that the Confederate flag is associated with segregation, the KKK and lynchings. 'And invariably people would say, you know, racism was so terrible. It was an abomination. ... But that's not what I'm here to connect with,' Dukes says. Instead, the re-enactors were there to connect with their ancestors, he says.... 'I think people tried to distance their ancestors from the guilt associated with slavery, and I also think they tried to implicate everybody else,' Dukes says. 'So, pointing out, very accurately, that slavery — the economic system — relied on the markets and the textile factories and places like that in the North.'... Dukes describes that perspective as 'willful innocence.' It's a logic "that says, 'OK, I have the right to love my great-great-grandfather and to admire those things in his life that are admirable, like bravery, like loyalty, like accomplishments, like survival. And because he must have been a good person, then the cause he fought for and the flag that he held must not have been a bad cause.' … While some Southerners are well aware that the flag is often perceived as racist — and display it anyway — others display it to demonstrate their mistrust in federal government and as a symbol of resistance to federal regulation. And for others, Dukes says, the Confederate flag signifies an awareness that rural white Southerners, and rural Americans more generally, are often stereotyped as backward.... 'I'm not sure that waving a Confederate flag is a great way to get that respect back — and often it is enacting the stereotype that they're trying to escape — but I do think it's a legitimate complaint nevertheless.'”

There is a brand of romanticism among many Southerners which simply doesn't focus on the mistreatment of black people as being the vicious thing that it actually was – and still is. If you're Southern and particularly if you're from a rural background, you simply grew up “counting kin” and seeing old faded pictures of women in long dresses beside men in gray uniforms. They are your family, and you don't think of them as being villains. Most of them wouldn't have allowed black people to come to their church or eat in their favorite restaurant, even in the 1950's and '60's, though. Those who have left the country and come to “a big city” like New York or Washington, DC will have had some exposure to black people on a more even playing field by the 1960's, and their young people by the thousands rebelled against the old ways of thinking and marched down the streets for Civil Rights under the leadership of Martin Luther King. Those young people aren't likely to go back to the attitudes of the “bad old days,” but likewise their parents who remained in the country aren't likely to change their viewpoints either. It is a transformation of our society that occurs one by one as each white person becomes friends with someone who is black, or sometimes as liberal thinking creeps into the educated population in such a widespread way that Democrats end up outvoting the conservatives even in rural Southern places. It is happening – just not very fast. Personally, I value our shared history in the South, both blacks and whites, and I have not forgotten my Confederate ancestors, but I have moved on to live as free of racial guilt as I am able to do. None of the people on either side of my family owned slaves, and my grandmother and her family lived for severaly weeks with a black sharecropper when their house was burned down in a forest fire. I see to it that I don't judge anyone based on their skin color, and I make my personal relationships by their individual characteristics. I think that will achieve the right result.